WEST GERMANY: Awkward Miracle

Twelve years ago what remained of Germany's bombed-out cities
and factories was littered with more than 500 million
cubic yards of rubble, and the German peoplesome of whom
were getting only half as many calories as the average Chinese
peasantstumbled through the ruins of their homeland in dazed
hopelessness. Last week the free half of Germany, long since recovered,
was embarrassed by its riches. It had so much foreign currency that its
hoard was becoming a handicap.

Adenauer's West Germany, with but two-thirds the population of Hitler's
Reich, is now Western Europe's richest nation. Thanks to a roaring
export trade...